Typhoon day

So today is my first Typhoon day. Taipei County and Taipei City both declared today to be a Typhoon day. That means it's a holiday for those areas.

Yesterday we went to the supermarket to stock up for the next day spent in the apartment. It was like one of those scenes from a movie about the impending apocalypse. The shelves weren't totally empty but they were definitely sparse. The lines at the checkout were very long also. We of course stocked up on the essentials: tonic water, chips, beer...oh and water of course. We also went to the video store and got a couple of movies. All the while it was pouring rain with gale force winds.

Typhoon day: today was the actual typhoon. I ventured out in the typhoon for more essentials: coffee and breakfast. Plus I had to go out in my first typhoon. Just about everything in my neighbourhood was closed, except for a couple of breakfast places, a coffee shop, convenience stores, and of course the internet cafes. The weather was great, more pouring rain and driving winds. It almost tore my umbrella to shreds but I survived.

The unfortunate part about all this is I only get paid for four hours of work when normally I work seven hours on Mondays. Ah well I'm getting paid for staying at home and watching movies all day.

I have now experienced my first typhoon. One more notch on the belt of Taiwanese experiences.